Profile For Ocho

I have driven a 28’ft, 36’ft,48,ft and 53ft trailer doing food delivery. I don’t plan on just jumping into my own truck my plan is to go with a company for a while and then into a lease purchase more so to “learn” how to run a trucking company and to get an idea of what to expect and less about the money. The reason being is it will allow me the flexibility that I need and if I fail I would only have myself to blame instead of me complaining about working for a company and being under paid. My father in law and a friend of mine are both Owner Operators and they love it. Problems and stress comes with everything in life, I can’t let the potential “stress” stop me from achieving a goal of mine, if it don’t work the I can always work for a company

No, I believe you miss read that, I was saying after my 6 months I was going to leave the food delivery business for flatbed and be there for a year or two before getting my own truck

Hey everyone, So my initial goal when entering the trucking industry was to get with a good flatbed company, gain a year or two of experience and then buy me a truck to lease on to a company however, since graduating CDL school I have only done food delivery, which is not bad the pay is great but there really isn’t any upside in it. So I’ve been looking at Flatbed companies to go to after my 6 months mark (January 2023) but they all require 6 months to a year OTR experience which I don’t have. Do I need to switch to a company that offers regional flatbed jobs to gain the needed experience?

Thanks everyone for the Congrats!!! I am now working in the food delivery service, need to work on my backing but I know it comes with experience

Hey guys just wanted to give you guys an update. Thanks to all of your good advice with the shifting and starting from a stop, I passed my CDL road portion today. There was a point in during my test when I was completing that same left turn (that I mentioned in a previous post) and missed my gear (again) but this time I didn’t go into a panic and start grinding gears , I just completely stopped the truck, clutched all the way in , threw it into 4th gear and proceeds all in the matter of seconds!! I thought this was a for sure fail like the last time but I didn’t let it show. Once we got back to the DDS I told him “Go ahead and give it to me” sounding defeated, he smiled and said you passed!! “The key is to not panic”😁😁😁Moral of the story is don’t panic guys you got it!! And don’t count yourself out!!

Yes, I think after my CDL road test I won’t drive another manual until it’s my owns

Reason why Automatics, are sooooo much easier to drive ! Die hard manual drivers I know, LOVED getting swapped into an auto truck, once they got to driving 1, said they'd NEVER got back to a manual lol....I got my drivers license at 15 in my girlfriends '66 VW Beetle, barely passed, because the examiner didn't like my speed shifting,and that I'd wind out every gear for max speed, and not use the clutch everytime....Told him, bro, it's a VW, you HAVE to wind out each gear to get going with the flow sheeesh....The turn signal flasher was bad, so I flicked it like it would do normally, when he was checking rear signals....Fun day !

Thanks everyone for the useful advice! So it seems like the answer to problem is , for the low gears (1-4) I should progressive shift and don’t wind the gears for max speed. So I’ll start in 3rd gear and quickly grab 4th before I start a turn or go through an intersection. You guys are awesome thanks for the advice

Yeah I figured out what I was doing wrong! After starting in 2nd from a stop, I can hit 3rd gear quickly but then I end up winding the gears to the max rpm’s allowed before trying to shift into 4th gear, but I believe the mph were to fast. So what I’ll do is I’ll start in 3rd gear and grab 4th quickly, that way by the time I get to 1300 rpm in 4th I can come straight down into 5th gear, or I could shift from 2nd to 4th without any hiccups and be on my way. This was the only thing that failed me so I’ll be ready to re-test in about 2 weeks

So I started in 2nd and shifted to 3rd right before making the turn, once the turn was complete I tried to shift to 4th but I missed the gear, at this point I was going up a hill and my mph was at 15mph so I went into 6th gear. Yes I do believe I lost the rpm’s to get into 4th however my mph was 15 mph so I just did some quick thinking. Maybe I should have let the rpm’s drop down to around 900 or 1000 and then popped it into 4th, I panicked

Good afternoon everyone. So today I took my road portion of my CDL test and I thought I was doing everything correctly, no stall outs, blinkers, down shifting, etc. I felt pretty good about the test. My only hiccup was when we were making a left turn that goes on a hill. I started from my stop in 2nd and quickly grabbed 3rd right before I started my turn, once the turn was finished I tried to grab fourth but I missed it so I went into 6th (15 mph). The examiner told me that I did not recover fast enough and that I would have been impeding traffic which is an automatic fail. (Even though there was no traffic). How do I quickly recover a missed gear without “impeding traffic “?

One last question. Can I perform the same method while on an incline? Or would I have to do it the opposite way, slowly release the clutch until the point of contact , release the brake count to one and then accelerate lightly? There is a slight incline right before you leave out of the DDS and onto the road, I’ve managed to get over it before , but it was with a prayer and in 1st gear lol.

Because I will be holding the clutch right below the “engaging” point it shouldn’t take me to long after I’ve started rolling to have the clutch fully released and ready to accelerate.

It won't take long at all in 2nd gear, especially if you're pulling an empty trailer. It should take maybe two seconds from the time the clutch begins to engage until it's fully released.

Best of luck!

Ok, thanks for the advice. After practicing this weekend and learning that technique I feel better about starting from a stop. Just didn’t want to impede traffic after I get it rolling while slowly releasing the clutch, but I’d rather be be safe and slow rather than rushing and do something wrong. I really appreciate all of the wisdom you guys have shared. Because I will be holding the clutch right below the “engaging” point it shouldn’t take me to long after I’ve started rolling to have the clutch fully released and ready to accelerate. Thank you guys so much! Wish me luck!

Thanks guys for the warm welcome. I take my Road portion this Wednesday and I just wanted to make sure that I have this method down. So before we leave the DDS yard I will attempt this method. While rolling and still holding the clutch before the engagement point, should I wait until I have fully released the clutch before giving it gas, and then shifting to 4th, or would I have to roll a bit with now acceleration, let the clutch engage, and then give it gas? I know I might be talking in circles , I just don’t want to take to long releasing the clutch before the light turns red again!

Hey guys/gals! We were taught in CDL school to start from a stop in 4th gear! I can do this easily at school but for the test I can’t seem to take off without stalling. I think I may have found a way to take off from a stop in 2nd without stalling but my way seems unorthodox!! While I’m at the red light, I hold both the clutch and the brake in. While the light is still red I perform a “tug” test to see how far I need to push the clutch in just to hold. While holding the clutch “before” the engaging point, I release the brakes and let the torque pull the truck forward, while easing further off the clutch, once the clutch is fully engaged I give it gas. My problem is I think I am doing this way to slow and all wrong, but it works for me most times. Do you guys have any pointers, to improve take off without stalling?